May 16, 2008

Not long ago, Marion Jones & Tim Montgomery looked like they had it pretty good. Gold medals, world records and a baby. Now they have multiple drug scandals, check-fraud convictions, and a baby whose parents are both incarcerated.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Olympic gold medalist Tim Montgomery was
sentenced to 46 months in prison today for his part in a
multimillion-dollar fake-check scheme.

May 12, 2008

As many of you know, Edie Perkins is one of our new triathletes. In addition to being an elite runner, Edie is also racing bikes for Kissena nowadays. While even an amoral headline grabber like me can't pretend to take any credit for it, Edie had an impressive result at Harriman this weekend. Here report is below. My favorite part is how JP Partland (pictured at the right) was mistaken for her.

May 07, 2008

Yes - it's almost that time again. Mark your calendars, because Saturday, June 21 at 7p, we'll congregate at Grand Army Plaza for 30 - count 'em 30 - fun filled laps of Prospect Park. And please remember our in for a dime - in for a dollar policy. Please don't grace us with your presence for 10-20 miles, or even 10-20 laps. Come on out and do the whole thing. We need to average 18+ mph, so we'll shoot for 11:00/lap.

If all goes according to plan, we'll drop the bikes at the studio and drag our sweaty carcasses over to Blue Ribbon or Bar Tano for last call. There's even talk of special survivor's T-shirts this year.

May 05, 2008

Those of you who regularly read our humble blog know that after the Mardi Gras Marathon, there were a couple of posts about a woman who implausibly ran 2:05 for the first half and then somehow finished the second half in 1:10. Check here for the first report. The runner was later disqualified.

Despite the obvious evidence, the runner has at least one loyal friend who ignored the facts and responded angrily to me at the subsequent posting. Her defender angrily said that I should check my facts and that I should be ashamed. She even decided to go the "we did it for cancer patients" route by pointing out that they raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, as if running for a good cause absolves one of the need to actually complete the entire course and entitles you to take not only a finisher's medal, but also a trophy that was rightfully earned by our own Blair Heinke. I applaud her defender's loyalty, but humbly suggest that she's overmatched here. Righteous indignation does not change the truth, which I outlined in my response to her:

Actually,
it is not a joke, and it is you who should fact check before posting.
If you follow the series of events that led up to this post, you will
realize that. First, Ron - another blog commenter - wrote to point out
that Ms Bond was credited with a 2:05 for the first half and 1:10 for
the second half. Further investigation showed her pictured during the
first half of the race near other runners who finished in the 4:15-4:30
range. She was not in any pictures taken later in the race until the
end. She then crossed the finish line 1:10 after crossing the halfway
mat. Considering that that time is world class for a half marathon (let
alone the second half of a full marathon) it makes the time rather
suspect. Additionally, Ms Bond has no documented marathon o
r half marathon times that even come close to those.
An inquiry was made with the race director and race timer before making
any post about Ms Bond. They both informed me that she had been
disqualified for cutting the course.
And since you suggest that it is I who should be ashamed of myself, let
me point out a few things. *I* have never cut a course or crossed a
finish line for a race that i did not run in its entirety. *I* have
never solicited and accepted donations for a cause with the promise of
completing a task in exchange, and then not completed said task.
Lastly, *I* have never called someone out without doing my due
diligence.

Personally, my best guess is that Ms Bond is a decent person who made a
mistake, and she'd probably prefer to let memory of her indiscretion
fade away, but her friend doesn't want to leave it alone. The friend (so far known as Ash and Betsy in her two posts from the same IP address) has continued to post comments insulting me and others posting comments, rather than letting is go. Hopefully, this will put an end to the issue.